Late Medieval Catholicism:

asceticism: rejection of  "the world, the flesh and the Devil"
                 clerical vows of povery, chastity, obedience to superiors
                 laity: fasting, penance for sins

Types of clergy
"Regular clergy": live according to a rule ("regula")
           monasticism: "the narrow path," withdraw from world to monastery
                                529 Rule of St Benedict: first monastic rule
                               13th C. Augustinian Hermits (Luther's order)
          medicant orders: live by begging (mendicare = to beg in Latin)
                        13th C. Franciscans: St. Francis of Asissi
                                    Dominicants: St. Dominic (Spanish)
                        role: preaching in towns and cities
                               university teaching
secular clergy:
            those who live "in the world" (saecula = world or century)
                     such as parish priests, bishops, Archbishops, Cardinals
                      College of Cardinals: "Princes of the Church," elect the Pope

benefice: any Church office with an income attached to it
               pluralism = holding multiple benefices

Problems with late medieval church:
              1) venality of office = buying and selling offices in state or church
                  simony = sinful act of buying and selling church offices
                  multiple benefices results in absentee Bishops (many live in Rome)
              2) judicial appeals to Rome: clergy tried only in church courts
                            laity: marriage, inheritance regulated by church laws
              3) late 15th C. Papacy as secular, worldly, morally corrupt
                            nepotism: appointing relatives to high church office
                            Sixtus IV: appoints nephew Giovanni della Rovere as Cardinal
                                           later he becomes Julius II
                            Alexander VI: Borgia Pope, father of Lucrezia and Cesare
                                                 Cesare as head of papal army
4) penitential system:
              Baptism as removal of original sin
              Penance as "second plank after shipwreck":
                            priest grants absolution which removes guld, but penalties for sin remain
                            penances: pilgrimage for serious sins, prayers, fasting
                            Purgatory: place to complete penance after death
                                           doctrine arises around 1200
              Indulgences: remission of temporal punishment due to sin
                                     theory of the treasury of merits of Christ and the saints
                                     Pope holds "keys" to the Kingdom and to these merits
                            origins of indulgences in Crusades:
                            plenary indulgence: full remission of penalties vs partial (set time)